Cavan’s streets welcome guerrilla gastronomy

A standstill in Virginia Town mid-morning traffic last Thursday is perhaps not unusual, but the circumstances certainly were as a new Anglo-Celt/Cavan County Council backed campaign to boost the profile the upcoming Taste of Cavan hit the streets for the first time.

Guerrilla gastronomy garnished with a nod to the unbridled punk subculture, the initiative coincides with development of several new exclusive online webisodes, to be broadcast in the coming weeks in the run up to #TOC17, which takes place at the Cavan Equestrian Centre August 11-12.
Playfully entitled ‘Never Mind the Boxty', the action calls upon some of the county's best known chefs to come up with dishes inspired by the county that goes beyond our most famous and beloved ingredient, boxty.
First up was St Kyran's dynamic head chef Eddie Attwell, also of BBC's Great British Menu fame, who managed to cook up quite the storm on just two portable electric hobs on Virgina's Main Street.
The Derry native served up his delicious take on beef stew and bacon and cabbage using only the finest local ingredients, including those sourced from St Kyran's own polytunnels.
Intrigued onlookers came to admire Eddie's cooking skills on display outside Skelly's Costcutters as he dished out two-day braised beef in one extravagant course, and utilise pig's head in the other.
“It was a lot of fun,†Eddie told the Celt afterwards. “The county has a great culinary tradition, some of the best produce on this island, and Taste of Cavan is about showcasing that.
“It's not about knocking boxty, which is a wonderful ingredient itself, it's about bringing local food to local people and doing it in a different way,†he adds.
Taste of Cavan returns for its sixth year later this summer, having attracted almost 40,000 hungry revellers across the two-day event last year.
With more than 120 stalls of artisan food and craft producers from Cavan and the surrounding areas, exhibitions and demonstrations by a host of high-profile names, and lots of fun family entertainment, this year's event promises to be bigger and better than ever before.

Be sure to check out The Anglo-Celt website and Facebook page for more ‘Never Mind the Boxty' videos, and the #TOC17 tag which will also be available on Twitter over Taste of Cavan weekend.